George Javori

I recently picked up a copy of Shivaree's Who's Got Trouble? album. Shivaree has no full-time drummer, apparently, and makes do with hired guns. Reading through the list of guest musicians in the liner notes, I came across the name George Javori. I went to high school with a guy by that name, and even back then he played incredible drums. He was the go-to guy for anything in the entire school that required a drummer. I jammed with him once or twice back in my guitar days, but frankly, my playing was a complete embarrassment to his. Not very many Javoris running around, even in New York (the name is Hungarian in origin). “Got to be the same guy,” I thought, did a little poking around on the internet, and turned up a few photos. Lo and behold, it was the same guy. He went pro, evidently, and in addition to studio work with the likes of Shivaree, eventually landed a gig as a touring drummer with Joan Baez. He also, it turned out, died in 2005. The information on him is scant, and I was not able to find the cause. The best I could do was this page on Joan Baez's site, as well as this bit on a tribute show to him done at a club in New York in early '06 by what I assume were mostly New York-based musicians who knew him. Kind of odd to contemplate all this. The world really is a small place, and maybe there really is something to the whole six degrees thing.